This invention relates to a liquid collecting tube used for clinical test such as blood test.
This type of liquid collecting tube, for instance one for blood test, has a glass or plastic tubular member with a bottom and a closure member closing an open end of the tubular member. The closure member maintains the gas tightness of the tubular member, and also it can be bonded in close contact relation to the tubular member and re-seal a pierced portion after removal of a piercing needle. Typically, a rubber plug type closure member as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,886 is used. With recent automation of test systems, however, difficulties are produced in the handling of the rubber plug type closure member as noted above, and recently a film seal type closure member has been proposed, which is a film including a sealing member capable of re-sealing a potion thereof.
When testing collected blood in the liquid collecting tube, the blood is taken out of the tube. Usually a pipette is used as take-out tool for taking out the blood. When taking out the blood, the pipette should be inserted into the tube. With the tube with a rubber plug type closure member, the closure member is removed from the tube for inserting the pipette. In the case of a film seal type closure member, the pipette is also inserted after peeling off the entire film because a re-sealing member of the closure member can not be pierced by the pipette.
With a blood collecting tube for centrifugal separation of serum or plasma from blood, the film is peeled off after mixing the contained collected blood with a reagent or the like by turning down the tube. Therefore, scattering of attached blood is liable when peeling off the film even if due care is taken, thus giving rise to pollution by the scattered blood and also hazardous contagion of diseases to the operator. Further, since a force in excess of a necessary force is given momentarily to the tube when peeling off the film, not only the attached blood but also the contained blood is liable to be scattered due to vibrations, thus making the problems noted above more significant and also making the handling of the tube more difficult.